Grandma’s Drop-Down Table

In the mid-1950s, my Grandma Austill moved to an apartment in downtown Sikeston, above the Collins Music Store.  I remember taking a set of very steep stairs to reach her apartment.  At the top of the steps, there was an open landing area leading to the several apartments.  Once Grandma opened the door to her two-room, one-bath apartment one was always impressed at how fastidious she kept the two rooms.  She was a second generation German-American, and they believed that cleanness was next to Godliness.  You could not find a speck of dust on her floors. 

The apartment had a room in front where she had her bed, a chest, a chair and table with a lamp and a couple of other things in that space.  Then you went through a small hall with the bathroom on the right and her closet on the left.  She had a tiny kitchen, with a divider between the small stove, refrigerator, and dining area.  The divider was where she kept her dishes.  The dining area was small, a standard table and chairs would not fit into the designated eating area provided because space was only about four feet by five feet in size.  Instead of a standard table, she had a fold-down or drop-down table, and two thin benches, one on each side of the table, where she ate her meals.  The table and two benches worked like a Murphy bed.  You opened double doors of a cabinet.  Inside, the table and two benches were mounted to the kitchen wall.  The legs fit into specials sized wells cut into the back of the cabinet for storage. To use them, you unhook the latches, drop each down to the floor and place each leg on the floor to stabilize the table and benches.  When you are through eating, you do the reverse to put it back into the cabinet. Not once did I ever hear my grandma complain about a lack of space.  She loved the little place she made her home, and I loved visiting her in her unique place with the “special” table for two.  She would have preferred a standard table and chairs, but she never complained about the effort it took to take down and put up the table daily.  She was content staying home; she did not have the drive or need to travel and see the world.

Other than work, church and the grocery store, she rarely went anywhere.  She would have much rather people visit her in her apartment than to go and visit others.  She had no car and walked to work, shopping or to visit my family.  In a small town in the 1940s and 1950s, a person could live without a car.  I am not sure if that is true today.  Few of us today could be as happy and content with so little space or items of comfort as she was throughout her life.  When I want to travel, but don’t have extra money for that special trip, I think about my Grandma Austill.   I am truly blessed and can learn from her lesson of being content with what I have and with the good Lord above.  She was about minimalist before it was in vogue.  As an adult,  I am thankful for the many lessons she taught me, however, I will pass on having a drop-down table to use daily.

Next week, I will tell of my first meeting with my husband, and the results of that meeting.  I was a wee girl at the time.

My Grandma Austill - Her Hearing Aid & Spinach!

Caroline "Carrie" Rettig-Price-Austill

Carrie Rettig-Price-Austill was my mother's (Marie Ruth Price-Cline) mother.  She was a quiet lady who wore a hearing aid most of the time.  When she had her hearing aid in her ear, she was soft spoken.  One Sunday after church, I went home with her for a few hours.  I played near her with childhood toys she kept in her closet for me.  All of a sudden, she said something to me so loudly it frightens me.  My parents said I got up and ran the three blocks home.  She did not have a telephone at the time, so she walked to my house behind me to learn what caused me to run off.  I told her she had never yelled at me before, and it scared me.  My mother laughed because she knew how Grandma talked without the hearing aid.   I think Grandma was embarrassed.  From that point on she never took her hearing aid out around me and I always looked to see if it was in her ear.  Back in the 1940 and 1950s, hearing aids were about the size of a nickel, flesh colored, and worn outside the ear.  They were visible, unlike they are today.  

Grandma’s parents were both German.  Their parents immigrated to the USA in the mid-1850s.  Louis (Ludwig) Rettig immigrated from Evangelisch, Kandel, Pfalz, Bavaria through the Port of New York on 11 May 1852.  He first settled in Louisville, Kentucky where he met Elizabeth Bell Milch, who he married later that year.  Elizabeth immigrated to America from Speyer, Pfalz, Germany in 1850.  After they had married, they moved to Evansville, Indiana where they raised fourteen children.  Carrie’s father, Fred Joseph Rettig, was one of those children.

She grew up hearing German spoken and could understand German, but she did not speak it as well as she understood it.  In 1939, when Germany declared war on Britain and the rest of Europe, American-Germans were embarrassed to speak German.  That was the time older German’s learned to speak English.  Few future generations of German-Americans spoke English after World War II.  Her German-American upbringing shaped her personality.  She believed in cleanliness and was very frugal.

Another thing I remember about her was how she taught me to like spinach.  When I was about five or six years old, I was spending another Sunday afternoon with her.  Grandma started cooking supper for us.  The vegetable was spinach.  After she had cooked it, she ate some of it and went on about how good it tasted.  She said there might not be enough for me.   She then put a big helping on her plate and a small serving on my plate.  That was not her normal way of feeding us.  I watched her eat it and heard her make noises of delight.  She had me wait until after I ate everything else on my plate before eating my spinach.  When I finally tasted it, I thought it was the best vegetable in the world.  I still like it.   She taught me many things in her unique style.  It is odd what we remember about the ones we loved after they are gone.  I loved her very much.

Next week we will take a look at Grandma Austill's unique apartment and learn more of her philosophy of life.  

Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield

Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield
Enclosed shelter has two attached columbarium walls. 

Out of respect, one stands a little taller, and speak more softly when standing among the gleaming white headstones of fallen and other veterans buried in a military cemetery.  The Missouri Veterans Cemetery in Bloomfield is located on 65 acres along scenic Crowley’s Ridge in the upper Missouri Bootheel. The cemetery sits on low rolling hills.  The first burial occurred on September 29, 2003. The cemetery has a capacity of 27,000 gravesites.  Mr. Stan Baughn of the Missouri Veteran Cemetery Commission told me that 2,964 burials were performed as of March 31, 2017. Of those, 2,116 were burials and 848 were cremations interred in the columbarium walls.  A shelter holds 8000 niches for the interment of cremated remains. To walk among enlisted men and officers side by side is inspirational.  To reach this peaceful cemetery from US Highway 60, take the Highway 25 North exit toward Bloomfield. Travel approximately 4 miles north and the cemetery is on the west side of Highway 25, at 17357 Stars and Stripes Way, Bloomfield, Missouri.

An enclosed and heated shelter is used for internment services. The tastefully finished permanent shelter is used for the sacramental portion of burial services.  It is flanked by two columbarium walls for the interment of cremains, and a flag pole area which makes a plaza.  Other formal memorial ceremonies are conducted on the plaza.  A small lake containing a red, white, and blue-lit fountain is encircled by a walking path on the south end of the cemetery.  Throughout the cemetery, visitors find granite memorial benches for rest and reflection.

The Veterans Cemetery program operates to honor our Veterans for their service and sacrifice.  Missouri Veterans Commission has created a network of Veterans cemeteries so that every Missouri Veteran will have reasonable access to a Veterans cemetery.  Five cemeteries are in operation at this time:

·                  Bloomfield 

·                  Ft. Leonard Wood 

·                  Higginsville

·                  Jacksonville

·                  Springfield 

Eligibility criteria for burial in a Missouri Veterans Cemetery are the same as that in a national cemetery.  It is not surprising that any Veteran convicted of a federal or state capital crime is barred from burial in a Missouri State Veterans Cemetery. This prohibition also includes those Veterans who commit capital crimes but avoid conviction due to death or flight.

Did you know spouses are buried in veteran cemeteries too?  Burial services are provided to Veterans, their spouses, and eligible dependent children.  Veteran benefits include a concrete grave liner, upright granite headstones, full military honors for the Veteran, and perpetual care. Those who choose cremation, have the choice of in-ground burial or placement within a columbarium niche.  Interment services are conducted Monday through Friday at hourly intervals. The funeral home and Veterans Cemetery coordinate the scheduling of services. 

On leaving the veterans cemetery, you may want to visit the Stars and Stripes Museum and see the original military newspaper printed in 1861.  The museum and cemetery share the same access road.  Another point of interest is a short distance away.  The Stoddard County Confederate Memorial was research and constructed by a group of passionate residences, spearheaded by Larry Arnold in 1992.  The project was completed in 2002.  When you leave the Missouri Veteran's Cemetery, you turn left (north) on Highway 25. At the four-way stop in Bloomfield, you turn right (East) on State Highway E. You go up the road approximately .2 of a mile and turn right on Country Road 517. The cemetery is on the left.

There are markers for 152 soldiers, nine civilians ‘political prisoners’ who died in prison at Alton, Illinois, plus 22 non-Stoddard Countians buried in this Memorial, and one Union soldier.  The interesting difference about this cemetery from other military cemeteries is the inscriptions on the back side of each headstone telling how and where the soldier died. This difference of the inscription on the back makes one think more about that soldier’s experience, and to appreciate his sacrifice.  Every soldier buried here, as did many buried in the Bloomfield Missouri Veteran Cemetery across town, paid the ultimate price for freedom, and for the veterans who survived, they returned home changed men by the horrific experience. 

My husband Tom and I visited both cemeteries and the Stars and Stripes Museum in 2005.  It was a sad, humbling, and moving experience to walk among the graves and to think of the horror that those men must have gone through in battle.  Soldiers of every war fought bravely and with pride for what they believed. These markers represent our ancestors, who earned our honor and respect.  Memorial Day would be a good day to drive to Bloomfield and to visit all three sites mentioned here.

Next week, will cover a family member who lived in another era.  Join me next week, and thank you for visiting today.

Soldiers of Both Sides of Wars Are Heroes

Photo by permission of Stoddard
County Confederate Memorial website

Last week we learned that the once pro-southern town of Bloomfield, Missouri set on Crowley's Ridge in Stoddard County and often saw both the Confederate and Union forces in the Civil War.

Larry Arnold from Dexter, Missouri, saw a Civil War tombstone in a St. James, Missouri cemetery that had the soldier’s general name and dates on the front of his headstone. However, on the back was inscribed, “killed by the Yankees at the Battle of Booneville, Missouri.  Whenever he saw a military stone after that, he was always disappointed not to see the detail of the serviceman’s death on the back side of the headstone.

The Stoddard County’s Confederate Memorial’s website tells what happened next in the words of the memorial's creator.  "When Jim McGhee and Jim Mayo published their book, “Stoddard Grays“ (an informational book about Confederate soldiers from Stoddard County) in 1995, Arnold started to get an idea. “I thought it would be neat to order grave markers for the 117 plus Stoddard Countians (identified in Stoddard Grays) that died during the war and inscribe where and how they died on the back."

“When I conceived the idea, there was 117 known Stoddard Countians. We now have placed markers for 152 soldiers, nine civilians ‘political prisoners’ who died in prison at Alton, Illinois, plus 22 non-Stoddard Countians buried in this location; their home counties are inscribed on the back of the stones.”

“Even though their bodies lie from Mine Creek, Kansas, in the West, to Petersburg, Virginia, to the East, on the battlefields of the South, and under the former POW camps of the North, their names and sacrifices will once again be remembered and spoken of in their home county they loved so much and were willing to die for.”

In 1992, Larry Arnold began steps to make his vision a reality.  Arnold is quick to give credit to many others who also contributed to the development and implementation of the Stoddard County’s Confederate Memorial.  Two of his dedicated workers in the cemetery was Jim Mayo, along with Ruth Wilson, who provided the necessary administrative services as well as manual labor.  Arnold also acknowledged the support of members in the Col. A.S. Riley Camp, No. 791 of New Madrid and Whitener's Monument and Lily's Monument companies generously completed the engraving of the stones.  Christian and Dowdy Lumber Company, of Dexter, furnished lumber, and Ray Ezzell if Dexter installed the shingles, and Pruitt Glass Company donated the bulletproof glass. Arnold said the Veteran Administration also provided the headstones. Many individuals, too many to list, contributed financially and with other support.

My husband Tom and I visited this cemetery in 2005.  The interesting difference about this cemetery from other military cemeteries is inscriptions on the back side of each headstone telling how and where the soldier died. This difference makes one think about that soldier as a person.  It was a sad, humbling, and moving experience to walk among those graves and to think of the horror that those men must have gone through over one-hundred and fifty years ago.  They fought bravely and with pride for what they believed, the same as Union soldiers fought for what they believed. These markers represent our ancestors, who deserve our honor. 

Thousands of soldiers fought in the Missouri Home Guard (USA) and  Missouri State Guard (CSA) who are often forgotten.  For many, no confirmation of their deaths was sent to Washington, DC for inclusion in Civil War records at the National Archives.  I was pleased to see the following Missouri State Guard (MSG) soldiers honored at the Stoddard County Civil War Memorial.  

    2^nd Lt. Billington Offut,         Company A, 2nd Inf. Regt, 1 Div.          Stoddard County

    Pvt. Theophilus J. McKee     Company A, 2nd Cav. Regt.                   Cape Girardeau County

    Pvt. W. Shelton                       Company G, 3rd Inf. Regt.                     Iron County

    Pvt. J. Robert Kirkpatrick      Company E, 4^th Inf. Regt.                     Scott County 

In the Battle of Fredericktown, Gen M. Jeff Thompson's Missouri State Guardsmen suffered a total of 25 dead on the battlefield, 40 wounded, and 80 captured.  After their retreat, they brought the 40 wounded back to a hospital in Bloomfield.  At least six of the wounded died in the hospital and were buried in the Bloomfield Cemetery and now are honored in the memorial section of the cemetery.

     Cpt. W. M. Walker                    Company B, 1st Inf. Bn.                      Mississippi County

     Pvt. Nathaniel Wheat,             Company B, 2nd Inf. Bn.                     Butler County

     Capt. Thomas C. Neville         Company G, 2nd Inf. Regt.1 Div.        Stoddard County

     Pvt. Calvin Watts                     Company H, 3rd Inf. Regt.                  Mississippi County

     2^nd Lt. Allen Seabaugh           Company E, 4th Inf. Regt.                  Bollinger County

     Pvt. H. H. Kinder                      Company B, 4th Inf. Regt.                  Bollinger County

The above Missouri State Guardsmen are but ten of the total 152 men represented in the Memorial.  Most of them were just local kids who joined the MSG to fight against what they saw as illegal invaders who violated Missouri’s autonomy.  There were also thirteen young men with the MSG who were captured and sent to federal prisons in the region.  Four died of illness in the Alton, Illinois prison, and Pvt. William H. Neal died aboard the USS John Rice, with the others dying in St. Louis at Gratiot Prison, Jefferson Barracks, or the Myrtle Street Prison, and Pvt. David Shrum died at the Rock Island Prison in Illinois.

The war was over for the men in the Stoddard County Confederate Memorial grounds, but for the men who returned to their southern homes, many soldiers found them burned to the ground.  Many didn’t know where their family members were at the time of their return.  The Southern soldier lived with the results of the loss of the war and reconstruction for the rest of his life.  They fought as hard and with as much passion as the Union soldier, but there was no hero’s welcome home for them.  I would compare their return home with what the returning Viet Nam soldiers experienced.  Many of Viet Nam veterans lost their jobs and were changed men by battle, both the Confederate soldier and the Viet Nam soldier were champions for Freedom.  They deserved our respect and earned the honor in fighting for their beliefs.  My father’s side of my family fought for the Southern cause, and the men on my mother’s side fought for the Northern cause.  I believe all the men who fought in the Civil War deserve my honor and respect.  It is for this reason that I found the Stoddard County Confederate Memorial a moving experience.  I thank Larry Arnold for his vision and for spearheading the Confederate Memorial project completed in 2002.  I thank all the many others that contributed to the construction, the financial contributions, the in-kind services, and those who continue in the maintenance of the site.  I also salute and respect the soldiers who gave their lives for the belief they were defending the state of Missouri.

Residents of Bloomfield are proud to have both the Stoddard County’s Confederate Memorial and the Bloomfield Missouri Veterans Cemetery in their town.  Next week we I will write about the Missouri Veterans Cemetery.  I encourage you to leave a message on items in the Bootheel you would like to learn more about, or you can contact me at mcharmon1@gmail.com.  Have a great week everyone.

  

Crowley's Ridge Is An Important Landform in Missouri

Original 1861 Stars and Stripes Newspaper

The Stars and Stripes Museum and Library

Let us transition from the swamps to Crowley's Ridge.  Moving in time from the early 1800s to the Civil War between 1861 and 1865.   Crowley's Ridge is a major regional landform of hills in Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas, made of loess mantle and underlain by loamy, sandy, or gravelly deposits.[1] This Ridge extends from Cape Girardeau, Missouri in a wide arc of over 150 miles down to Helena, Arkansas. The sloping 200 to 500-foot elevation contrasts sharply with the surrounding delta bottomland.  Early settlers were attracted to Crowley's Ridge as it offered pasture lands well above the adjacent swamps.  About ten years after the New Madrid Earthquake, the government built a road on the ridge, because it was impossible to travel through the thick timber and marshy swamps.  

Few people today realize that of the 10,000 battles and scrimmages fought in the American Civil War, over 2,000 of those were fought in Missouri.  There is an invisible line in Scott County that separates not only the lay of the land, but also the thinking of the people who live there.  You experience a rather steep drop in the elevation at the end of the Benton Hills.  That is where the land flattens.  The land remains flat until you reach Memphis.  Where the land flattens, is the Mason-Dixon Line.   As a child, my father took me up to a point around Morley, where he showed me a metal stake with words on its side buried in the ground.  He announced, "This, Margaret, is the Mason-Dixon Line.  It divides people far more than it divides the land."  His statement meant little to me at the time; however, I now understand his statement completely. 

 In 1861, the state legislature passed an act authorizing the Missouri State Guards. The statue divided the state into military districts; Southeast Missouri was District One with N. W. Watkins of Cape Girardeau appointed by the Governor as Brigadier General to command the district.  Finding the work distasteful after his  Jackson home was pillaged and burned, by Col. Charles T. Marsh and his troops on Aug. 30, 1861. Watkins resigned shortly after than and moved to his Beechwood Plantation in Scott County.  He was replaced by M. Jeff Thompson who temporarily made his headquarters at Bloomfield.

Northern sympathizers who didn’t join the Union Army joined the “Home Guard.”   Between the Home Guard and the “Confederate State Guard,” there was constant hostility and warfare throughout the state.  The Bootheel was strongly pro-Southern, therefore, hostility was especially strong in Southeast Missouri.  I have a personal account of individuals who wrote their experiences in journals, similar to those written about the New Madrid Earthquake.  Sometime in the future, I will tell their stories.

The once pro-southern town of Bloomfield is the county seat of Stoddard County.  It is located on Crowley's Ridge, where it offers an excellent vantage point in all directions.  Both the Union and Confederate forces traveled through the town on their way to various battles.  From time to time, there was fighting between the two armies.  The town is famous for one particular event.  Three Illinois Union units camped in Bloomfield on November 9, 1861.  A few of the soldier went for a walk in the town and came to the local newspaper office.  The office was unattended so they decided to publish their own newspaper.  They wrote on their military activities and sent it back home to their family.  They named the paper The Stars and Stripes newspaper.  Although it is not directly associated with the current United States’ military newspaper, the title "The Stars and Stripes" came from that first newspaper published in Bloomfield.  Today, Bloomfield proudly houses the Stars and Stripes Museum and Library. [1]  One of the three original 1861 issues of that first paper is on display in the museum.

 My friend Doris Jean Arnold of Cape Girardeau, formerly of Dexter, sent me an article published in The Dexter Statesman.[2]  The story was based on her cousin Kathy Mooney Skelton’s presentation on the History of Evan’s Pottery to the Stoddard County Historical Society in 2014.   Missouri's first known pottery business started in Stoddard County by the Jacob Semmimon family between 1850 and 1858.  Jacob was a potter in Georgia who sent his son Thomas from there to Arkansas in search of clay soil suitable for the potter's trade.  On the advice of friendly Indians, Thomas Semmimon continued to the Bloomfield area.  He was joined later by his then-widowed mother and other family members, and they established themselves as “Jug Makers.”  They blasted clay soil out of the ground, then hit with a hammer until pieces were small enough to be ground up.  The pottery method and items produced were primitive and utilitarian.  Finished pottery included fruit jars, kraut crocks, milk pitchers, and whiskey jugs. The business was expanded by loading oxen-drawn wagons with pottery and peddling them along the Bloomfield to Cape Road. Upon arriving in Cape Girardeau, the family set up shop at a livery stable.  After they sold their pottery, the family then bought goods coming into Cape on steamboats.  They resold the goods on their return trip back to Bloomfield.

In 1882, Hugh Evans was working for Jacob Semmimon and married his daughter Lucinda.  Following the death of Thomas Semmimon, Evans took over the operation of the business.  Evans' son Randall also learned the potter's trade and continued the business under the name of Evans Pottery.  Evans Pottery ended production in the 1960's, and the last building was demolished for the widening of Highway 25 between Bloomfield and Dexter.  Family members in Nevada have remained interested in pottery, and Charles Randall Evans Jr. works part-time creating pieces in the Desert Sands style pottery.  Doris Jean Arnold, Charles Randall Evans, and Kathy Money Skelton are descendants of Hugh Evans.  The following is a summary of Ms. Skelton’s presentation on the history of Evan's History.

Although Bloomfield was burned three times during the Civil War, the pottery business was always spared, possibly because none of those involved wanted to see a shortage of whiskey jugs!

 There are many stories I could tell about the people and events in Bloomfield.  I will write about the Confederate Cemetery there next week.  I hope to have answers to requests about the Miller House in Bloomfield.  If I receive an answer to my query, I will tell the story of the Miller House next week.  If not, we will look at more of my family history.  Look for a combination of my family history and general history of the Southeast Missouri region in the future.  Thank you for joining me on this Blog.

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 [1] https://mdc.mo.gov/resource/current-river-geology-and-geomorphology
                [2] The Dexter Statesman, Dexter, Missouri, August 6, 2014, By Karen Peters

1811-1812 New Madrid Earthquake Formed Reelfoot Lake

According to the United States Geological Survey, Reelfoot Lake was formed when the region subsided during the 1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes.[1] The earthquakes resulted in several significant changes in the landforms over a widespread area, with shocks being felt as far away as Quebec, Canada.  When I read this on the USGS website, I thought about how much damage such a quake would do today, and how many people it would kill.  Reelfoot Lake is a shallow natural lake located in the Northwest portion of the state of Tennessee, in Lake and Obion counties. Much of it is really more of a swamp, with bayou-like ditches (some natural, some man-made). The bayous connect to more open bodies of water called basins, the largest of which is called Blue Basin. Reelfoot Lake is noted for its bald cypress trees and its nesting pairs of bald eagles.  Few people today know how Reelfoot Lake came to be. Thus, I am writing about it to educate readers on the New Madrid region.  It is essential to understand our history, which is usually interesting, and at times, it is awe-inspiring.

Reelfoot Lake is said to be named after an Indian chief who had a deformed foot and was nicknamed "Reelfoot" by settlers in the early 19th Century. A Chickasaw legend states that the name originated from a prince of a Chickasaw tribe inhabiting West Tennessee, who was born with a deformed foot and walked with a rolling motion. So, he was nicknamed Kolpin, meaning Reelfoot. When he became chief, Reelfoot determined to marry a Choctaw princess, but her father would not permit it. The Great Spirit warned Reelfoot that if he attempted to kidnap the maiden, his village and his people would be destroyed. Reelfoot disobeyed the Spirit, and seized the princess by force and carried her to Chickasaw territory, where he arranged a marriage ceremony.

In the middle of the ceremony, the Great Spirit stamped his foot in anger, causing the earth to quake, and the Father of the Waters raised the Mississippi River over its banks, inundating Reelfoot's homeland. The water flowed into the imprint left by the Spirit's foot, forming a beautiful lake beneath which Reelfoot, his bride, and his people lie buried.[2]   This is just Folk-Lore, but it is a quaint way of explaining something supernatural that we are unable to explain otherwise.

Last week, I included a short excerpt from the journal of Mr. Godfrey Lesieur, an eye-witness to the devastation from the earthquake.  This Blog gives another eye-witness account of the earthquake.   Eliza Bryan wrote to Rev. Lorenzo Dow, on March 16, 1816, the following:[3]

“Dear Sir, On the 16^th of December 1811, at about 2 o’clock A.M., we were visited by a violent shock of an earthquake, accompanied by a very awful noise, resembling loud but distant thunder, but more hoarse, and vibrating, which was followed by a few minutes by the complete saturation of the atmosphere with sulfurous vapor, causing total darkness.  The screams of the affrighted inhabitants running to and fro, not knowing where to go or what to do, the cries of the fowls and the beasts of every species, the cracking of trees falling, and the roaring of the Mississippi, the current of which was retrograde for a few minutes, owing, as is supposed, to an eruption in its bed, formed a scene truly terrible.  From that time until about sunrise, a number of lighter shocks occurred, at which time one more violent than the first took place, with the same accompaniments, and the terror which had been excited in everyone, and indeed in all animal nature, was now, if possible, doubted.  The inhabitants fled in every direction to the country, supposing (if it can be admitted that their minds were exercised at all) that there was less danger from a distance than near the river.  In one person, a female [Mrs. Lafont], the alarm was so great that she fainted, and could not be revived."

Eliza Bryan wrote much more on the earthquake, but it will have to be presented in segments over several weeks.  You learned today that the Reelfoot Lake was formed directly from the result of the Great New Madrid Earthquake.   Next week we will transition from the swamps to Crowley's Ridge.   This Ridge extends from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, in a wide arc of over 150 miles down to Helena, Arkansas. The sloping 200 to 500-foot elevation contrasts sharply with the surrounding delta bottomland.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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[1] Historic Earthquakes: New Madrid Earthquakes 1811–1812: Earthquake Summary. USGS

[2]  Wilbur A. Nelson: "Reelfoot — an Earthquake Lake" In National Geographic Magazine, Vol. XLV, January 1962, p. 103.

[3] Goodspeed's History of Southeast Missouri, 1888, page 304.

The Great New Madrid Earthquake!

Growing up in Sikeston, Missouri, I wondered why they called the Bootheel of Missouri "Swampeast Missouri."  I never saw any swamp.  The land was flat and dry, with some of the most productive farmland in the world.  My mother said the area was "boringly flat" from Benton Hill in Scott County to Pemiscot County, Missouri, and south to Memphis. The only exception to the flatness was Crowley's Ridge.  They grow mostly cotton, soybeans, and corn in the Bootheel.  The area is southern in its thinking, talking, and living.  It is hot and humid in the summer, and moderately cold in the winter.  Several friends who graduated from high school with me went to Ole Miss or Arkansas State University.  Most others attended Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, thirty-two miles away.  It was not evident to me when I was growing up that the area was as southern as Mississippi.

I was blessed to have a good teacher in History at my high school.  For that reason, I find history fascinating.  It was not until I attended college for the second time that I became interested in my regional history.  I learned the reason why they called the Bootheel "Swampeast Missouri."  Hundreds of books are written on the subject of the great 1811-1812 New Madrid Earthquake, but  I was forty years old before I ever read one.  Some of the pioneers in the New Madrid area kept journals describing what it was like to endure the great quake.  In Goodspeed's 1888 History of Southeast Missouri, I found the following account of the great earthquake.

     "New Madrid, rendered famous by the great earthquake of 1811-1812, was, initially, one of the old Spanish forts, and lies about twenty miles below the mouth of the Ohio River.  It was settled immediately after the close of the Revolutionary War by families from Virginia and the Carolinas. It was growing rapidly in wealth and population when its progress was arrested by that frightful calamity which affected not only the county of New Madrid but also the neighboring country on both sides of the Mississippi (River).  Streams were turned from their channels or dried up.  Hills, forests, and plains disappeared, and lakes were formed in their places. Vast heaps of sand were scattered in various locations, and whole tracts of land sank below the level of the surrounding country."  One lake formed was sixty or seventy miles long and from three to twenty in breadth. Short extracts from the description of Mr. Godfrey Lesieur, who was an eye-witness  of the scene, and wrote his experience in a journal, is quoted below:

     "The first shock was about 2 o'clock A.M., on the night of December 16, 1811, and was very hard, shaking down log houses, chimneys, etc.  It was followed at intervals, from half an hour to an hour apart.  The shocks were comparatively slight until about 7 o'clock in the morning, when a rumbling noise was heard in the west, not unlike distant thunder.  In an instant, the earth began to totter and shake so that no persons were able to stand or walk.  This lasted a minute; then the land was observed to be rolling in waves of a few feet in height, with a visible depression between.  These swells burst, throwing up large volumes of water, and a species of charcoal, some of which was partly covered with a substance, which, by its peculiar odor, was thought to be sulfur.  Where these swells burst, large, wide and long fissures were left, running north and south parallel to each other for miles.  I have seen some four or five miles in length, four and one-half feet deep on an average, and about ten feet wide.  After this, slight shocks were felt at intervals, until January 7, 1812, when the region was again visited by an earthquake equal to the first in violence, and characterized by the same frightful results."

Mr. Lesieur wrote that, upon this second visitation, the inhabitants, excepting two families, fled the country in dismay, leaving behind their stock, and even many of their household goods, all of which were appropriated by adventurers and carried away in flatboats.  The last violent shock occurred on the 17th of February, 1812.

It Takes A While to Appreciate Our Own History and now I know why they called the Bootheel "Swampeast Missouri."  The earthquake caused a two-million-acre region of swamps that was also called the “Missouri Glades.”   The result of the New Madrid Earthquake produced the largest wetland in America between 1812 and 1928. Between 1907 and 1928,  the Little River Drainage District drained the swamps to make the Bootheel some of the most productive farmland in the world.  

Next Tuesday, I will discuss the swamps and why today's land is flat and dry. It is a fascinating adventure you will want to read.